Trump's United States Under Trump's Second Term Seems Strangely Recognizable to Observers from China

When Vickie Wang, a rising performer, steps onto her platform in New York, she is not just thinking about which jokes to tell. She also weighs what subjects to steer clear of. “I refrain from directly attacking the administration,” she explained. Or if she does, she ensures it's not captured for online platforms. “I'd never publish openly material in which I directly criticize authorities … I think it's a learned behavior from China.”

Wang, 39, resided in the Chinese metropolis for almost ten years, leaving in that year. By 2025, she moved to America. Upon arrival, she dove into a frenzy of “revenge bingeing on freedom,” attending lectures, protests, and delving into the city's public library.

However over the past year since Donald Trump returned to office again, there's been a “palpable change” in the atmosphere, she says. “Back home, I knew where the line was, while in the US I'm standing on unstable ground.”

Wang’s fears reflect an emerging climate in America which numerous individuals from China, or people who have lived in China, find disturbingly similar. Opponents are ostracised. The president demands absolute loyalty. Reporters face scrutiny. Establishments are attacked.

The president has openly expressed about his admiration for China's leader, China’s authoritarian figure. He has described him as a “great guy”. When they reached a brief ceasefire in the trade war recently, the camaraderie between the two leaders of nations with vastly different political systems became clear. And after decades of optimism in the US that closer ties with the East could assist the rising power to liberalise, under Trump 2.0, it appears as if America is shifting in the Chinese direction, instead of vice versa.

“America is experiencing a period of cultural revolution,” said a constitutional law expert, a professor at Peking University. “The top leader, Donald Trump, is attempting to rally the masses to marginalize or undermine established figures … similar to events in the country decades past.”

Ever since the administration unleashed what's termed Department for Government Efficiency, or the agency, on the Washington bureaucracy at the start of his term, numerous Chinese observers have viewed American governance through the lens of the Cultural Revolution. Be it the rallying of the youth to carry out presidential directives, or cleansing institutions of perceived enemies, the president as viewed from China has brought Mao-style chaos to the US, though absent equivalent degrees of force.

But after the upheaval of the initial period under Trump subsided, a new, different kind of climate has emerged in the US, which variously seems recognizable to numerous Chinese people.

‘The Beacon Has Become Less Bright’

The most profound parallel between Trump’s America and the East is the suppression on open expression.

Deng Haiyan, now a CCP critic, found himself in the eye of a storm this year, similar to what he once faced in his homeland. He has lived in the US for several years, after escaping the country due to harassment from officials.

Last fall, after the death of a public figure, Deng tweeted that Kirk was “despicable”. Similar to others nationwide – many of whom were fired for expressing criticism about Kirk – Deng faced a huge backlash. His family had personal info leaked and he faced allegations of espionage seeking to divide the US.

“That event was a real shock. I never imagined that something like this would occur in the United States – something that should only happen in a repressive state,” Deng said.

His backlash came from fellow social media users, rather than the government, but that kind of public monitoring also has parallels with China.

“In terms of targeting dissenters and starting to surveil public speech on topics deemed controversial … That’s starting to emerge in the US,” noted an academic, a scholar at Georgia State University. “That’s something that you see in China today as too,” she said, stating that concerns are rising in America of pupils informing against educators, a form of surveillance that has been encouraged by the CCP.

Zhang, the Peking University law professor, said that liberal Chinese intellectuals like himself once turned to America for political inspiration, since public debate on internal affairs in the country is dangerous. However, “America is no longer some kind of god for Chinese liberals. The US's reputation has declined generally.”

“We used to see the US as the beacon of constitutional democracy, but after Trump took power, this lighthouse seems to have become dimmer”.

Chinese liberals, who are often, behind closed doors, skeptical about the nation's governance, now perceive it more acceptable than the US's, Zhang said. “It's somewhat difficult to acknowledge this reality … but after the pandemic, authorities seems to be doing the right thing in improving the environment and promoting EVs and tech investment,” Zhang said, while “the West, as represented by the United States, seems to be in decline.”

The government's acquisition of stakes in US companies has also drawn parallels with the East, where the distinction between government and private industry is often blurred.

Recently, the US government announced it will take a shareholder in a new company specialising in rare earth processing, following comparable shares in additional firms deemed vital to national security. The deals have left some investors nervous that America is entering a fresh phase of state intervention in private industry.

Yet, there remain significant distinctions between Trump’s America and the East. Last month, several news organisations including the Guardian refused to sign to a defense department rule that demanded reporting solely on government-authorised information. US courts have halted or overturned many of Trump’s actions, something that would be impossible in the nation's CCP-controlled legal system.

Isaac Stone Fish, who established of Strategy Risks, a China-focused advisory firm, said: “The United States could descend into the worst crisis of its history, orders of magnitudes worse than currently, and it will still be freer, more open, and liberal than the East under its leader.”

The professor notes that while many intellectuals in the country were surprised to see US universities yield to official requests regarding diversity and inclusion practices and open discourse on campus, in China, leading institutions are all state-owned inherently. University leaders, who are appointed by the government, “cannot of saying no. They can’t afford defy orders.”

Still, people in the US are beginning to take precautions that were once confined to more authoritarian countries. One professor at a US university who was previously vocal on US-China issues refused to speak for this piece. He stated: “Honestly, I am scared of suppression in the US: I genuinely feel less afraid criticizing China's leader these days than say anything bad